This invention generally relates to explosive compositions and more particularly to explosive compositions containing guanidinium picrate.
Guanidinium picrate has been known to be an explosive composition for many years. Thus, in U.S. Pat. 1,558,565 guanidinium picrate is disclosed as being used an an explosive fill in a bomb. However, this compound has an unusually low heat of detonation so that it has not been used to any great extent. In fact, there are many explosives available today which have much greater heats of detonation and which release considerably more explosive energy upon detonation.
However, it has only recently been discovered that guanidinium picrate possesses certain properties which now make its use for certain applications advantageous. Thus, its extremely low sensitivity to impact, its low cost of production and excellent thermal stability can make the use of guanidinium picrate highly desirable for certain applications despite its low heat of detonation.